NutriSport & Smoothie opens for healthy eating in downtown Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — A new health-focused cafe is finding common ground between very different target audiences in a post-pandemic world.

While traditional restaurants and food-oriented businesses are struggling with inflation, overhead costs and unprecedented supply-chain interruptions, the owners of NutriSport & Smoothie think their new venture is a proven concept for a post-pandemic world.

With low overhead, the fast-casual concept has a wide variety of smoothies, wraps and breakfast bowls that serve two crowds: business professionals during the lunch hour and gym goers coming from their workout. With multiple gyms in the downtown area and some downtown business workers returning to the office for work, the timing was right for Cedar Rapids owners Craig Coder and Brent Stepanek to open up the concept.

“Yeah, it’s a bad time (for restaurants) because of COVID and everything, but on the other side of that, there’s kind of been a change in the way people look at nutrition,” Coder said. “The food industry is struggling, but the nutrition industry is not, because of the health concerns that came out of COVID.”

With more health concerns, the use of supplements and healthy eating habits are on the rise, making a traditionally risky business venture a little less uncertain. NutriSport & Smoothie opened July 5 downtown in the former location of Ruby’s Pizzeria, next to Cobble Hill — two years later than planned.

The space has been vacant since Ruby’s closed in 2018.

With a variety of fruit and protein smoothies, the menu shows that you don’t have to sacrifice taste for healthy eating. Push Pop and Peanut Butter Blaster smoothies taste just as vivid as their names sound. Even green smoothies made with kale have a fruit-forward palate, making the trade-off more balanced.

For a nominal charge, customers can get one of 18 supplements from A to W — amino energy to whey protein — including everything from muscle-building recovery to collagen, fiber, glutamine and liver support. Manager Peyton Brokovich is on hand as a supplement expert to help navigate the options for your next boost.

The Baja Guacamole Wrap remains one of their most popular, and breakfast bowls provide fresh meats and veggies in tasty proportions that provide all of the protein with less of the fat.

The target audience is an unusual mix, but one that makes sense. With a lack of healthy and convenient options, folks looking for a quick bite or sip have few options downtown.

Some customers take their orders to go, and many opt for the tables available inside. The few other healthy options that are around are often prepackaged, Coder said.

“You usually have to go to the grocery store and make it yourself,” Stepanek added. “But here, you can be in and out quickly.”

The new downtown franchise — the third NutriSport & Smoothie site in Cedar Rapids and Marion — is the first food-oriented business owned by either partner. Stepanek owns HD Elite gym downtown.

Over the next three years, the business partners plan to open three to five more stores.

Friends since childhood, the men now in their early 40s have worked together before. Coder, now a general manager for Spahn & Rose Lumber Company, previously recruited Stepanek for work at Kinsler Construction and grew it together.

Both owners also have a history of combat military service. Coder enlisted in 2005, served in Iraq, and remains active in the Iowa National Guard. Stepanek was active from 2002 to 2008 and served in Afghanistan.

Comments: (319) 398-8340; elijah.decious@thegazette.com